ART was introduced in Android 4.4 as an alternative runtime, available to those who wanted to try something other than Dalvik. Instead of doing some compiling when launching apps, all apps are pre-compiled to increase speed and efficiency. Many noticed this difference in speed, many did not. However, it should still be a more efficient method.

Of course, app incompatibility was a serious problem. But because ART was available to use on KitKat devices, developers started updating their apps to support it. And now we have confirmation that ART will replace Dalvik entirely in the next version of Android. Considering the amount of developer support ART has garnered, compatibility issues should be few and far between.

New commits to Android, namely 98553 and 98618, show that ART will now be the default runtime in whatever the next version of Android will be. That’s pretty exciting, as there hasn’t been such a huge change to the core of Android since Ice Cream Sandwich. Do you guys currently use ART? How do you like it? Leave a comment!

Dima Aryeh is a Russian obsessed with all things tech. He does photography, is an avid phone modder (who uses an AT&T Galaxy Note II), a heavy gamer (both PC and 360), and an aspiring home mechanic. He is also an avid fan of music, especially power metal.

It wasn’t available on my device when it came out so I forgot about it for months, including when I got a new device. Found it about a month ago and switched to see what it did. I’m not going back. It’s noticeably smoother and faster than Dalvik ever was, in most cases anyway. There were a couple of apps with no difference and a couple of really old ones that didn’t agree with the change at all.